A Little Bit Wicked

[Audiobook]
By: Kristin Chenoweth
Narrated by: Kristin Chenoweth
Publisher: Oasis Audio
Dates Listened: January 20-25
Length: 6 hours 46 minutes
Source: Overdrive App

Why did I read it?
I was driving down to Three Hills and needed something new to listen to.  I like Kristin Chenoweth well enough - she originated Glinda in Wicked on Broadway!

Kristin Chenoweth's memoir, A Little Bit Wicked, goes back as far as her childhood all the way to when it was released in 2009.  We follow a little girl who used to sing in church to a young hopeful going to university to major in theatre and then get her masters in opera to an up and comer on Broadway and the television screen.  

The thing about memoirs is they are not written by writers.  I used to think when celebrities got help it was just sad, but now I moreso wish that they would more often.  Without the help from an actual trained writer I find they jump around way too much.  What is nice about audiobooks read by the author is how easily distracted you are from this.  Hearing Chenoweth tell the stories makes the jumping much more bearable than reading it in a book.  As far as I am concerned, if the person is alive, they should be reading their own autobiography/memoir.  They will always get the intonation right which is very important.  

When I chose to listen to this, I was thinking it would actually make me a fan of Kristen Chenoweth.  I wanted to like more about her than Glinda.  The book had the opposite effect.  Not to say I don't like her at all, I just know I won't be a fan.  I feel as though she wrote this book to explain some controversies that started coming out about 10 years ago.  She dated a TV writer on and off for years and years and was getting a lot of flack about it, so she had to explain it all to us.  Apparently there were rumours she and Idina Menzel did not get along while doing Wicked together, she beat around the bush with this one so I am guessing it is true.  The biggest controversy of all is what I feel the whole book leads to: her appearance on an ultra-conservative Christian television show.  Chenoweth grew up a Christian and still declares herself to be one.  Her TV writer (ex?)-boyfriend is Jewish, she has posed for some risque photos, and her best friend is gay: this all exploded in one TV interview.  The ultra-conservative Christians who watch the show say she's a damnable sinner.  The LGBT+ community hates her for even agreeing to go on the show.  Everyone hates her so she decides to write a book to fix it all.  I feel like it is 6+ hours of trying to convince us she is a nice person and should not be hated by all.  Not a good reason to write a book in my opinion.  



Rating: 2.5/5
I'm in limbo again.  I didn't not like it.  Many of the stories were humourous and she really is a funny lady.  It had me laughing and pulled in the entire time.  I liked hearing about how she went from Oklahoma State University to Broadway to multiple television series.  I was disappointed when I started getting the sense it wasn't about any of that though.  It was all about winning people back after 10 minutes that didn't actually mean anything blew up into a catastrophe.  Basically, everyone else should not have been so silly so the book wouldn't have ended with her plea of how nice she is.  


Recommendation: 
If you're a Broadway fan - go for it.  I don't regret the drives I spent listening to it.  I thought it was good enough, but I am sure the super theatre nerds who really want to know what it's like on the inside will like it even more than I did - and maybe they won't be annoyed by how it ends.  Go ahead, give it a read!